Chuck: "Chuck Versus the Imported Hard Salami"Review

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Call of Duty 4 and more Rachel Bilson contributed to another solid episode.

By Eric Goldman

It was another strong episode for Chuck, which has seemed to have really hit its stride recently. This episode dealt with a lot, including Chuck's new relationship with Lou; the ongoing attraction between Chuck & Sarah; the return of a very important person in Chuck's life; and lest we forget, Call of Duty 4.

The Call of Duty 4 part of the story was included in the Buy More/Morgan portion of the plot, which had Morgan eager for a night of surf and turf ("half meatball/half tuna sub") and playing the aforementioned game with Chuck. But with Chuck busy with Lou, Morgan turned to Anna for his COD4 partner in crime. Morgan took a couple of off the cuff remarks, including "I have to tell you Morgan, I think you're one of the best Call of Duty 4 players in the store" as a sign that clearly Anna was into him, making a move that went over&#Array; less than well. Sure, Call of Duty 4's presence on the show was product placement, but considering how established Chuck and Morgan's game-love is, it was definitely a natural example of producet placement that worked well.

As for Chuck, he and Lou's new relationship was going extremely well, until Chuck had one of his flashes off of the name of Lou's ex-boyfriend Stavros, who turned out to be running an illegal shipment ring with his father. Now forced to be "on the job" while dating Lou, Chuck took her to Stavros' club, where he managed to be a terrible date, ignoring her while paying a ton of attention to both Stavros and to Sarah, who came in to make sure everything was alright (at least that was her excuse). Sarah's brief appearance aside, it was fun to see Chuck go pseudo-undercover on his own for the first time, as he's beginning to become an active spy more and more, his lack of fighting skills aside.

It seemed as though Lou might be involved in Stavros' crimes, though thankfully that wasn't the case, as it would have been too convenient. While she was using him to import something illegal, it was simply the hard salami of the title, and not any of the drugs or weapons he was involved with.

One apparent weapon turned out to be an absolutely huge bomb, which had been set to explode, and Chuck and Sarah's investigation led to them being captured by Stavros and his dad and nearly tortured. In a very clever sequence (both for the show and for Chuck as a character), Chuck managed to save Sarah from torture by using his intersect knowledge to reveal things about his captors that turned them on each other, which included one man shooting another in anger, giving them enough time to get free with Casey's help. Then, when Chuck and Sarah couldn't disarm the bomb and thought they were about to die, Sarah grabbed Chuck and initiated a huge, passionate kiss, which turned awkward when they realized that they were not in fact exploding -- the bomb wasn't a bomb at all and hadn't blown up.

Now having a very definite signal (to say the least) that Sarah did have feelings for him, Chuck ended things with Lou, in a sweet "if only the timing were different&#Array;" scene. It was nice to have a simple ending to this story rather than something on a grand scale, and of course the fact that Lou still works in the same mall as Chuck and Sarah means we might not have seen the last of Ms. Bilson.

Meanwhile there was a surprising turn for Morgan, who embarrassed himself in the store by revealing how Anna shot him down. Anna ended up shocking him by deciding to make a move on him, leading to a hot, heavy and fun geek make out session. The only misstep in this storyline was the end of it, as Morgan proudly told Chuck he and Anna were a couple&#Array; only to break up with her when Chuck said he'd broken up with Lou. Yes, it was played as a joke, but it still made Morgan come off as a bit stalkerish in terms of Chuck, and Morgan is a character that needs to be reigned in a bit more than that.

Chuck meanwhile happily called Sarah, leaving her a message asking her out on a real date for the first time. But that date isn't likely to happen soon, because Sarah and Casey were in the midst of opening the not-a-bomb, and discovering the person inside it, who turned out to be a very much alive Bryce.

I really wish NBC hadn't touted the whole "There's a big surprise about to be revealed&#Array;" thing in the commercials for this episode, showing Casey and Sarah looking inside the shell. Because yes, like many others, I guessed it was Bryce inside, and seeing Matthew Bomer's name in the guest star list at the top of the episode pretty much confirmed it.

But that doesn't mean the scene didn't play well. In fact, backed by some suitably effective "epic" music, the cross cutting between Chuck leaving his optimistic message and Sarah getting the "holy s**t" moment of her life worked extremely well. It also reinforced how much we've come to care about these characters at this point, as it's already startling to think about the impact of Bryce's return, even just in terms of the complicated relationship drama going on in the show.

The funniest/sexiest scene was the one in which Lester went to the Weinerlicious and tried to ask out the apparently newly single Sarah. Sarah knew exactly how to deal with the situation, pouncing on Lester and wrapping her legs around him, and causing him to run away in fright at a woman who was way too much for him to handle.